Thursday, October 29, 2009

Gave away another quilt today. It's always so bitter sweet. This one was for little Drake. Daniel's assistant, Amber, had a little boy about 2 weeks ago. This was their first so I made a quilt for him. I used 5 by 5 inch squares and picked a theme of Black, White, and Red. I used prints all over for to create a lot of visual interest and stimulation for the baby.

I used thin cotton for the front and binding and a thick flannel for the back. Used a light polyester bat and I quilted it myself on my machine.

Here are the pictures:

Center squares. Used some black fabric with army jeeps left over from Daniel's Iraq quilt.

Close up of the white prints which include music notes, penguins, flowers and ink spots. The red print has stars on it. You can also see the machine quilting in this photo.The black prints include safety pins, dalmatians, circles made with dots and soccer balls.Here a look at all three in verticle form.Back and binding. The backing flannel has animal tracks on it. I used a grey thread for quilting. Wondering now though if I should have used a black bottom thread so you didn't see the quilting on the back. It's certainly NOT perfectly straight but from a distance it doesn't look too bad.

Whole thing - Front and back.

After seeing it lying around my house for nearly 2 months in different stages - it is now gone, and it took a little piece of my heart with it. On a good note though - I received a quilt in the mail today. It was one I made over the summer and dropped it off at the long arm machine lady I use in New York. She just now finished it - 2 and a half months later. with a beautiful butterfly and loop pattern. Yes, one day I'll own a long arm machine and won't have to wait so long to get my quilting done but for now I'm not sure if it was sitting in my house that I could have finished it any faster. Short on time is my motto these days. So I have a new quilt to look at for a while - just need to put the binding on and then I'll be shipping that one out to Brinn.

Monday, October 12, 2009

I know I have't blogged in forever and this one isn't going to be long. I wish I had more time to do ALL the things I want to do but my family does take priority and the kids need a lot of time and attention. By the time they are in bed and we've been non-stop working on homework, practicing, extra curricular events - I'm downright pooped and don't feel like organizing photos and editing text -

But here's a short update on one of the things that has kept me busy lately. I hosted a babyshower for a girl in our ward - Annie P. She was Chase's primary teacher. She had a little girl Meggie. I am not a great party planner and don't have a great eye for decoration but I did think the table looked pretty.

I served mini black bottom cupcakes, seven layer dip with tortilla chips and gazpacho dip/cheese blend served with baked pita chips. My friend made an awesome punch with lemonade, orange juice, vanilla, almond extract and 7-up. It was delicious. I also got to use one of my wooden African bowls for the first time (pita chips) and my new Wilton Armetale platter/salad bowl (tortilla chips) that we bought at the dental charity event we attended recently.

We had a great turn out - I think 17. It was perfect. We wouldn't have fit many more comfortably. It was fun to have a girl party and we should do it more often whether a new baby is involved or not.